Has anyone started out in Postpartum/Nursery?

MA Nurse · Sep 19, 2007

I have recently floated to PP. I thought i liked it, but decided I didn't. Here's my reasons: in PP you will take care of the mom and the baby...which means in my hospital: 4 moms and 4 babies possibly. I think it can be too much of a work-load. The babies are healthy in PP, usually, so if you're looking for critical care, you would like NICU...not PP.

And it depends if you want to work with adults or just babies. You will have to deal with families in the NICU, but not have adults as patients, obviously.

The moms can be a lot of heavy work, too. Babies won't hurt your back.

Good luck

unikuelady, RN · Sep 20, 2007

I started out in mother/baby couplet care. After working for 5 years there I earned my RNC in Maternal/newborn. I always wanted to work in NICU and had to wait for an opening at my facility. I have been working NICU for the past 4 years and love it. I have found that I had an easier time switching to NICU because of my experience with healthy babies. Its difficult to assess a sick baby if you do not know what a healthy baby and normal variations are. There have been several new grads entering NICU and have a hard time adjusting. Mostly fear due to inexperience. Our orientation process has changed to start our new grads out in newborn nursery where they can gain experience and organization skills that are so important in the critical care area. Good luck in whatever your choice is.

Love_2_Learn · Sep 20, 2007

Like unikuelady, I also started out on a post partum floor which was a mother-baby unit providing couplet care. I agree with everything unikuelady said. I would not trade my mother-baby experience for anything because it gave me a wonderful foundation.

For example, as compared to some of my NICU colleagues who went straight to the NICU after graduating, I have more understanding of what the newly delivered mother is going through as she is recovering, I got really good at helping mothers with breastfeeding, and had plenty of experience simply talking with the families of new babies; this has translated well for me in caring for my NICU patients and their families. My counterparts who went straight to the NICU often have a more difficult time than I do interacting with the families and I really believe my mother-baby experience helped me so much. On our mother-baby unit we also took care of some mothers who were undelivered but caught between being too unstable to go home until delivery but being too stable for the one-on-one labor & delivery care. Taking care of those patients was great because I became pretty good at taking care of them as well as gaining a deeper understanding of their fears of delivering a premature baby. Our unit also took care of the postpartum mothers who had babies in the NICU so I learned first hand about how they were coping when in their rooms and how truly difficult it is for them to have their baby be in the NICU; I also took care of mom's who had babies pass away in the NICU... That was really tough and another valuable learning experience.

Concerning the babies, I also agree that once you are familiar with what a healthy baby looks and acts like, it makes it easier to recognize a sick one. That was one of my biggest concerns when I was offered either the mother-baby or NICU choice; it was because I was afraid of really sick babies... after all, I did not have any children of my own and had not really spent much time with babies in my life. I did love them and knew I wanted to work with children, but since there was not a pediatric unit available (my first choice) I figured the next best thing was the well babies in the mother-baby unit. In our mother-baby unit we also took care of babies under phototherapy and some who were clinically stable but requiring heparin locks and IV antibiotics for a couple of days until their blood culture results came back, so I did get some baby IV experience that way too. After almost 10 years of mother-baby I found myself feeling like I had pretty much "mastered" that area and was looking for a challenge. That is when I applied for the NICU job and got it. I also am certain that knowing healthy babies, normal vital signs, how to perform normal baby care, starting baby IVs, working with phototherapy, etc. helped me incredibly when I went to the NICU. I really believe my NICU orientation was much less stressful for me than it was for the new grads who had to learn it all at once.

Now, 15 years later I am still in heaven in the NICU and remain truly glad that I had the mother-baby experience. I should think that if you do mother-baby for 2 years or so that would be plenty and you will get your feet wet with the babies enough to know if you would like the NICU challenge. I remember being most afraid of the babies because they can't speak and say, "It hurts right here."; now I have learned to listen to their special way of "talking" to get their point accross and I have no problem "hearing" them asking for help.

I am sure you will make the best decision for yourself. Once you do, embrace the decision and enjoy the patients you work with. And, always remember that one of the benefits of being a nurse is that we can change areas of nursing pretty easily. Wishing you a fulfilling and rewarding career!